Asphalt goes down, trees go in on Main Street

Friday

Nov 15, 2013 at 3:39 PM

As the sun set Thursday afternoon in Hannibal, it was looking more and more like Brian Chaplin’s Wednesday prediction that the remaining paving of Main Street would be completed Thursday would come true.

DANNY HENLEYdanny.henley@courierpost.com

As the sun set Thursday afternoon in Hannibal, it was looking more and more like Brian Chaplin’s Wednesday prediction that the remaining paving of Main Street would be completed Thursday would come true.

“We’re getting real close to finishing paving today,” said the city’s project manager around 4:30 p.m.

The work was still going on late in the day because of a late start.

“We wanted to make sure the temperature was rising, which it did. It was a little windy, but it was a perfect day to pave,” said Chaplin, as he watched asphalt go down along the curb on the west side of South Main. “You get to see what the finished product is after today, although we’ve still got a few things to do to actually finish the project.”

One of those “things” was happening Thursday on North Main, where personnel from Schrimpf Landscaping of Jefferson City were planting trees as the light faded.

Chaplin estimated that five of approximately 35 trees were planted along North Main on Thursday. The tree planters got a late start, too.

“They’re going to be working on that the next few days. By Monday afternoon the trees will be completely put in,” he said. “The trees are beautiful. They’re big trees. Some of these trees are 25 to 30 feet tall. They’re big, nice trees.”

A move was already gaining momentum to put lights on the new trees.

“The new festival boxes will accommodate with the power,” said Chaplin. “It ought to be really nice downtown during the Christmas season. I can’t wait to see it all lit up.”

One of the final steps to be completed will be the installation of decorative crosswalks.

“We’re putting those in the plan this year,” said Chaplin. “If we get a week of warm weather we’re going to start putting them in. We’ll just kind of play it by ear with the weather. If we get good days we’ll take advantage of them and see if we can’t button this up before the first of the year.”

Chaplin thanked both Bleigh Construction and Bross Construction for their efforts.

“They both did a great job,” he said. “It turned out to be a beautiful project.”

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